Former Cat racer David Green back driving trucks for Red Horse Racing

Jane Miller

Thursday

Aug 30, 2007 at 12:01 AMAug 30, 2007 at 4:10 PM

One person's misfortune often opens up a great opportunity for someone else. David Green found himself in just such a situation in the past month after Craftsman Truck driver Aaron Fike's arrest on drug charges in July.

One person's misfortune often opens up a great opportunity for someone else.
David Green found himself in just such a situation in the past month after Craftsman Truck driver Aaron Fike's arrest on drug charges in July.
Green had been helping Fike learn the ropes during his rookie season in the Truck series. When a driver was needed for the Kentucky race on a few days notice after Fike's arrest, Green was the obvious choice. Red Horse Racing team owner Tom DeLoach then decided to keep the former Caterpillar driver on for the remainder of the season.
Green will make his fifth start in the No. 1 Toyota Tundra on Saturday night at Gateway International Raceway in Madison. Though he drove in the Truck series 10 years ago, he's found a lot of changes since then.
"I'm still trying to learn these trucks and what they do to those things compared to the Busch Series and the Car of Tomorrow and all that stuff I've been doing," said Green. "The trucks are so much different, at least the way the team had been setting them up. We're in the process of going like everybody else is going with the coil-bind setup and I think that will make it feel more familiar to me."
Since being released by the Brewco Motorsports Busch team near the end of last season, Green spent time spotting for Nextel Cup rookie David Gilliland, testing the Car of Tomorrow for Hendrick Motorsports and trying to help get the Riley D'Hondt Motorsports team off the ground, which hasn't really ever happened.
His friendship with Red Horse crew chief Jamie Jones brought him to the team at the start of the season to help Fike. Green and Fike had been part-time teammates at Brewco during the 2005 season.
"I was more than happy to do it," Green said. "And as the season progressed, Tom was trying to secure sponsorship to do a second truck, and it was becoming evident that maybe I would get to drive it, and then the whole deal with Aaron happened."
Green said he, like the rest of the team, never suspected there was a problem with Fike.
“Everybody on this team, their No. 1 goal was to do the best they could for Aaron to make him a better driver and they spared nothing to make sure he got the best equipment," he said. "But did I see times where Aaron could have taken an extra step on his behalf to complement what was happening? No. And that didn't concern me but it threw up a red flag.
"I'm not saying that the team required it or that it's in the NASCAR guidelines to do it, I'm just saying, did he ever show any desire, since he was ninth in points, to be the fifth-place point guy? Now as I say all that, the team obviously does their chores week in and week out to go from ninth to fifth but I'm simply pointing out as you ask me did I see anything that would reflect on what happened, no, but did I see some things that said he was kind of content or did he have his mind elsewhere, that question could always be raised, I guess."
The team is ninth in owner points heading into the Gateway race.
"I think we all recognize now, to be a contender and step it up to the top of the heap like the goal was, that we have to change some, too," Green said. "Hopefully the time we spend on doing these things now to the end of the year will put us in position where we can learn and possibly win before the year is out."
And Green hopes that the work he has put in this year can continue into next. With his growing family - daughter Kaylie is 10 and son Austin is 6 and just starting first grade - the lighter truck schedule fills the bill.
"I'd love to run a truck again next year," he said. "Tom still has aspirations of running two trucks with a younger guy and a more experienced guy and hopefully that's me.
"That would tickle me pink at this point in my career where I feel I'm within five to go - you might say I can see the checkered flag. And this would be something I'd like to finish out my career doing and still be able to help out some young guys and do all that stuff."
Peoria Journal Star

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